I WAS shocked and saddened to hear McDonald’s was to close in Macclesfield town centre. Over the years I’ve had a lot of fun in there with my kids laughing ourselves silly over a happy meal.

Now Wilmslow McDonald’s is to close and I have a distinct feeling our town centres are dying. Drive-through McDonalds are doing fantastic business, but town centre stores are suffering.

As out of town developments tempted shoppers, ludicrous parking policies, lack of inspiration and general planning lethargy have driven shoppers from the town centre. Add to that the rising cost of business rates and you have a recipe for decline.

Look at the pathetic Christmas lights, hardly likely to tempt shoppers into town were they? Macclesfield has a fantastic cobbled square right in front of the town hall perfect for a Covent Garden style street show. What do we get? Kids on skateboards.

We are desperately in need of inspiration (someone had the ‘vision’ to build the Trafford Centre, it didn’t just appear). Look at the towns and cities that have been transformed by imaginative planning. It can be done but we don’t have it.

Crossing our fingers and leaving it to Tesco isn’t going to save us. Our town centres are in terminal decline. When Ronald McDonald packs his bags others will follow. We need action now not in five years’ time.